Goodbye Blog!

So I have decided that between keeping up with our family picture albums, making a baby album for Ryder and updating Facebook, I can't keep the blog updated too!... so for now the blog is going to be put on the back burner.... maybe when I have some more time I will resurrect it... bye bye blog!

37 weeks!

For my own records I figured I should write a quick pregnancy update. Here is my belly at 37 weeks. Yesterday at my 38 week appointment my midwife said I was measuring at 40 weeks... our little guy is not so little any more. I have not been having an checks for dilation and effacement done. When people ask me how dilated I am and I tell them I don't know I have been getting some pretty strange/confused looks, but according to the Bradley Program and my midwife, it doesn't tell you much about when you will go into labor. A quick laborer can go from 0 to 10 cms in a couple of hours. Frankly I would rather avoid the mind/anticipation games and just let our little guy come when he is ready. Not to mention that I am avoiding any premature damage/rupture to membranes.



For me, the third trimester has been the easiest by far. No nausea, a cute belly and lots of adorable baby gifts! My sleeping continues to be a little rough (back and forth between the chair and bed) and my feet/legs are getting pretty swollen now, but all and all, things are good.
That being said, I have had a rough day here and there.... Here is my facebook post from last Friday...

Took of my sandals during a work meeting only to find that my feet had swollen too much for me to put them back on at the end.... Put my lunch in the microwave for 30 min instead of 3 min (needless to say it was charcoal by the time I found it).... Ran out to grab some lunch (and a cheap pair of sandals that actually fit)... left my wallet in the shoe store and have just now poured red pasta sauce down my white skirt..... Yep... I need a hug.

Thankfully at the end of this day, Tyler and I drove up to Park City for a little one-night getaway that we had previously planned. We had a fantastic dinner and stay at the Chateaux at Deer Valley. The next day we swam at the pool and then took a ride on the lift at the Park City Mountain Resort.

The nursery is 90% done now, just a few things to tidy up and get the curtains/rods up. I am all packed for the hospital and yesterday was my last day in the office. (I am working from home until the 18th and then will be officially on maternity leave after that).

I have started reading back through Ina May's Guild to Childbirth to get a little last minute inspiration/encouragement and Tyler and I will go and do a Bradley refresher class next Tuesday. I have started on the Evening Primrose Oil and Raspberry Leaf Tea to get things softened up. I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be... eeek.

Celebrating Pregnancy!

During my first visit to our mid-wife's office we noticed some gorgeous maternity photos up on the wall and decided we wanted to get some done! I really wanted to celebrate being pregnant and to appreciate how amazing the human body is that it can create another little being! At 34 weeks I did a little photo shoot with Sherri Beavers from Sweet Pea Photography. Aside from the photos which I am absolutely thrilled with, Tyler and I had such a fun time getting these done. It was a laugh a minute and Sherri was great. One of the most special moments from the photo shoot was the first picture that Tyler and I had taken together. I got all teary and had a wee moment when I realized that we were having our first official family portrait done!

Here are a few of my favorites -

Work baby shower!

My manager and a couple of the other ladies at work decided to throw me a baby shower! They invited some of my clients from UTA and colleagues from other consulting firms. We had a BBQ one afternoon after work. I should've guessed that the hilarious games and the Sangria would make for quite the event!



Everyone using rope to guess my circumference! (Dangerous for a prego ladies self-esteem!)



Thanks to Loretta's pregnancy quiz, I learnt that my uterus which is NOT the size of a "Goftball", is currently holding a "watermelon" sized baby which will soon need to be expelled through an opening the size of a "pink grapefruit."



Once again we got very spoilt!

Baby Shower with friends!

Well we certainly have gotten spoilt these last few weeks! At the end of July my incredible sister-in-law Liz and my wonderful friend Sarah threw a baby shower for me at our club house. They went all out! The decorations were adorable, they had created a little menu for the delicious food, all the guests received little party favors and everyone played baby bingo while I opened gifts! The detail that had gone into planning this shower was amazing. At the end of the shower Liz even handed me a stack of 'thank you cards' to match my invitations, with matching envelopes and pre-printed address labels for everyone who came to my shower, so all I had to do was write the thankyou's and put them in the mail! Awesome! Here is Liz (center), Sarah (right) and Liz's best friend Sarah Tveter (left).

The room looked amazing!


I should've guessed this would happen... my wonderful friends from New Zealand somehow managed to get involved! They organized a beautiful cake - "eco-friendly" disposable nappies (they know me too well) on the first two tiers with edible silver ferns and a kiwi wearing nappies on the top! They also sent New Zealand themed goodies! (Lolly cake!!)







It was so fun to have my neighbors and friends there!





Our little guy got very spoilt! This is a handmade quilt from my wonderful friend Dawn. Funnily enough I got a couple of gifts with this same little monkey face on it (I think people are trying to tell me something!)













Along with video messages from each of them, the girls from New Zealand sent me this All Blacks outfit! (The little hat and gloves are in our hospital bag ready to be worn straight away!)

My other wonderful sister-in-law Erin who lives in Washington found this great "boot lamp" to go with our country and western themed nursery. She mailed it down as a gift! And my Sarah hand made this beautiful quilt to go along with our theme.



Lastly I had to post a picture of these three little ladies who showed up at my baby shower in hopes of one day having a shot with our little guy! (Three of our good friends have had baby girls in the last 4 months!) Sweet baby Kate (most likely to one day be on a shampoo commercial), 1 month old Grace Greenhalgh and adorable little Ashley Lignell.

Love you Ina May!

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-25/ina-may-gaskin-birth-matters-midwifes-manifesta

What will he look like?

So I thought it would be fun to pull out old baby pics of Ty and me to try and guess what our little guy will look like!...

34 Weeks!

Not long to go now! Here is a photo from today - bubs is getting so big now! His little kicks have turned into complete morphing of my stomach. Last night Tyler and I sat staring at my stomach in hysterics as it had morphed into a cone shape pointing out towards the right side of my body! I am getting slower and slower by the day and am in quite a lot of pain due to something my mid-wife calls Pubic Symphysis Diastasis. Sleeping for two hours at a time is a real accomplishment, but surprisingly I am not too tired during the day (all good practice for the months ahead I'm sure!). Everyone keeps asking me how I'm coping with the summer heat... Other than needing the air-con on (which is no different from every other Utah Summer) all the time it really doesn't seem to be an issue. I have had a few days of nausea here and there, but nothing too bad really. And I asked my mid-wife the other day when I can expect to get stretch marks and she told me that if I was going to get them I would've already... yeeha!!!! Thank you to whichever of my parents passed on their non-stretch marky skin to me!!.... Not all hope of future bikini days at the beach has been lost!! All in all this future mama can't complain!

Baby Shower

So my wonderful sister-in-law Liz and one of my good friends Sarah are throwing me a baby shower at the end of July. I am so excited. Here is the adorable little invitation Liz created. They were sent out with matching bright green envelopes. She also made this cute little menu. I am very spoilt. I can't wait to catch up with a few friends that I haven't seen in a while and celebrate the upcoming birth of our little guy.

30 weeks!

So I have finally reached 30 weeks of being pregnant! Here's a picture.

It is great to think that I am less than 3 months away from meeting our little guy... and at the same time, it still feels a long time away.

I have been thankful to enjoy a couple of months with lots of energy and am only just starting to slow down now. Sleeping is starting to become pretty tricky - I rotate through a couple of different positions through the night (each lasting about 2 -3 hours before I'm awake again). Most of the positions involve very strategic positioning of about 52 pillows. Last night as we lay down to go to bed (with me basically sitting in an upright position propped up with pillows) Tyler announces that he feels like he is sleeping next to Mt. Lehi. He quickly noted that that was because of my stack of pillows and nothing to do with the size of anything else in the bed (wise man..)

We are onto week 9 of our Bradley birthing course now - http://bradleybirth.com/. I can't believe how much I have learnt and have felt very blessed that we have had the opportunity to participate. Hopefully all of the time, money and practice pays off in 3 months time. I have to say that sitting for two hours cross-legged on the floor cramped into a living room with 5 other couples is starting to get a little old now though and I am going to be glad to be done with the classes.

The nursery is coming along great - the blue walls and beautiful brown furniture looks fantastic. We went to Tai Pan trading company yesterday and bought all sorts of "country and western themed" decorations. And as of last night I have finally starting making the bedding (partially out of Tyler's grandpa's old country shirts).

California Adventures 2011

So we decided that before the baby arrives we should go on one more vacation. Originally we were thinking that we would go and visit Elly who is currently doing a study abroad in London, but as the time to book our tickets got closer, we realized that walking around sight seeing and being in places where comfort/nausea reducing foods might be slightly hard to find, might not be such a good idea. So we decided to take a trip up the California coast instead.

We flew from Utah to Sand Diego. This is a photo of us in front of the Hotel Del Coronado (on the beach). They had a great candy shop in the hotel!!!







It was great to see the pacific and play on the beach!










Here are some other pictures of things w did in San Diego. We got to see the USS Midway (aircraft carrier) parked in San Diego harbor and we also went to Sea World (I have a sneaking suspiscion that this isn't the original "Shamu"!)



Next we drove the L.A. The funniest part about our time in L.A. was how typical L.A. it really was. As soon as we got remotely close to the edge of the city we were stuck in a parking lot of traffic for the next few hours. During our first night there (at 4:30 AM) we were woken to the sound of screaming and yelling outside or hotel window. We look out to see a couple of cop cars pulled up on the sidewalk and a man being pinned to the ground! It was right out of the show "Cops." We only spent one full day in L.A. (which was more than enough). We went to Universal Studios and had a great time.Next we drove up the coast (about a 7 hour drive) along Highway 1. I was surprised with how unpopulated it was. It reminded me a lot of driving up the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand. Very rugged and windy. We stopped at a great little sea food restaurant for lunch and had shrimp!

Our lunch by the seaside that day was one of my favorite parts of the trip.
Next we stopped in Carmel, which is a white sandy beach town about two hours out of San Francisco. It was very european-esk and had a lot of little antique shops and galleries. Here is a picture of the cute little bed and breakfast we stayed in and a photo of us on the beach.


We ended our trip at Sue and Greg's place in Concord. We really enjoyed spending time with them and really appreciated them making an effort to plan fun activities with us (Tyler, Greg and Travis went golfing while Sue, Jen, Mya and me had a little baby shower). Travis also planned a fun out to an A's vs. New York Yankee's baseball game (which I had wanted to do since my family went when they visited for our wedding).